Leader in the movement to dehumanize immigrants defends attacks on gays

Jill Garvey • Dec 01, 2010

Mark Krikorian, executive director of anti-immigrant think-tank Center for Immigration Studies, has made a series of comments indicating that his xenophobia also manifests as homophobia.

Most recently, Krikorian defended the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a group that spearheads national campaigns bashing gay and lesbians. Not long before, in a September post on National Review Online, Krikorian wrote, “So now McCain has two extreme Obama positions on immigration to attack: driver’s licenses for illegals and immigration for gay couples. Will McCain ever use them to criticize Obama?”

In a June 4 article in the Boston Globe, Mr. Krikorian strongly opposed the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to grant a temporary entry into the U.S. to Genesio Oliveira of Brazil. Mr. Oliveira was allowed to be reunited with his spouse, Tim Coco, for at least one year on humanitarian grounds. Although they were married in Massachusetts in 2005, Mr. Coco has been unable to sponsor his spouse for legal residency because their marriage is not recognized under federal law.

In the same article, Mr. Krikorian says, “It’s a side-door attempt at changing the Defense of Marriage Act…that’s the problem with our immigration laws; it’s just this vast collection of exceptions for people who get the attention of a particular bureaucrat or judge or politician.”

He goes on to say that French colonizers didn’t do a good enough job suppressing paganism. He is referring to Haiti becoming the first Black-led republic in the world when it fought for and won independence from France in 1804. It’s akin to saying that America should have been ruled by the British longer or slavery ended too soon.